The Best Little Horror Site On The Web

Main menu

Post navigation

Ummmmmm: Opening Scene From ‘The Funhouse’ (1981)

Time for another installment of ‘Ummmmmm……‘ It’s where I talk about scenes from your favorite horror movies that made you utter that phrase and pause for a minute during your cinematic viewing. And coming up to the plate right now is the opening scene from a personal favorite of mine, Tobe Hooper’s 1981 slasher flick, The Funhouse. I’ll set the scene up real quick, then you can watch it, and then we’ll discuss.

Joey wants to pull a prank on his older sister, Amy, while she’s getting all clean and steamy in the shower.

That was a hell of a set up, wasn’t it?

Ummmmmm……did that little brother really just go in the shower when his sister was naked and start slowly stabbing her with a fake knife? Seems a little odd and creepy if you ask me. Why didn’t he just leave a dummy in her bed with a knife sticking out of it’s head? Oh wait – he did that too. Jeez Joey! Quite the multi-tasking prankster, aren’t you? Now for the sake of Youtube and my viewing audience, I left the actual nudity in the shower scene out, but yes, they do show full frontal on the girl. Making it even extra creepy! So to make sure this doesn’t happen again, let’s go over the rules of practical joking with your older sister: Naked sister shower ambush with a fake knife = bad. Bed dummy with a knife in it’s head = good.

*another senseless murder – when will it end???*

Now granted, I can forgive some of the brother/sister creepiness for the sheer fact that the opening scene in The Funhouse pays homage to the opening of the original Halloween and also, of course, the shower scene from Psycho. This is one of those movies that I always find myself going back to and it definitely brings back memories of the old dark rides that I rode when I was a kid. Am I the only one that felt sorry for The Monster when he got blue balls from Madame Zena by the way? I mean seriously. He gives her a nice stack of cash and all he gets is a little boob action? I’m not saying that I condone the strangling that he gave her, but……I understand. If you love The Funhouse as much as I do, make sure you pick up the new Scream Factory collector’s edition Blu-ray HERE. Feel free to skip past the creepy brother/sister opening though…..